Introducing My Bedroom (A.K.A. The “Before”)

Welcome to our first Wednesday post! We’re doing this together! As I outlined in my intro post last weekend, these mid-week articles will focus on topics surrounding design, fashion or beauty. Today, we’re talking design—my bedroom specifically, which kind of feels as exposing as standing in front of you in my underwear, but also my underwear is mismatched and maybe even has some holes in it. These are my private quarters, where I recharge every night, where I retreat to after work sometimes to sneak in a quick watch of Halloweentown (yeah, I said it). It also happens to be one of the rooms in my house that I’ve abandoned.

We all have “that room” that becomes a dumping ground for things, that you do weird things in “just for now” (you know, like stacking a set of dining chairs in the corner). “That room” is this room, and I’m ready to do something about it. Come along, won’t you?

Today, I’m going to walk you through the issues with the space and show you the “before” photos, as in, the “right now” photos that hopefully one day I’ll look back at, and say to myself “HAHAHA OMG REMEMBER WHEN I LIVED LIKE THAT?!?” #goals

A “Generic Raisin Bran” of a Room

Now, with the exception of the corner of doom, the room is not that bad. It has no real design or intention behind it, however, I’ve seen worse rooms. It gets wonderful light, it’s big enough for everything I need—need and want are two different things, mind you—but it’s a solid 4 out of 10. It’s like generic Raisin Bran. You know it can be so much better (Kellogg’s, baby!) but like, Up & Up Bran With Sugared Raisins gets the job done.

Let me mention that before I snapped these photos, I cleaned. I tidied. I changed the sheets. My nightstand received a stack of books (that are never really there) for some “style.” I don’t know why I put those there. At any given moment, there’s a giant pile of clothes on a side chair or in a laundry basket next to my hamper. Charles uses not his nightstand for his sundries but one of the rogue dining chairs instead. I will never understand why he does this. Basically, it normally looks far worse than it does in these photos, sadly. Partly a result of not caring much about the room due to its lack of any real design though, partly because OKAY FINE I’M A LITTLE MESSY SOMETIMES. BUT, my bedroom in Boca looked very nice and I tended to keep it much tidier. It’s a thing.

ANYWAY, let’s get to the photos, which is really why you’re here, right? Let’s do this.

My Bedroom As It Stands

There she is. Bland bran cereal in a bag instead of a box at the bottom of the grocery shelves. The Malt-O-Meal of bedrooms. But don’t worry baby, you’ll be name brand soon!

The “Dresser” Side

The walls are a nice neutral gray, but let’s get real..I’m not a “nice neutral gray” person. I have many thoughts about what these walls should be, but I’ll get to that in another post.

On one side, I have a dresser I bought for $20 from Craigslist from a woman who was offloading her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend’s belongings. Scandalous. It’s seen better days but it’s solid wood and I’ll likely refinish it. Next to that is a box that I placed “for now” when I moved in two years ago and alas, there it still is. Anyone need a full-size memory foam mattress topper?!? I’ve been meaning to donate it but there’s always that voice that whispers “psst…maybe you can use it for something.” Sure. Then there’s my hamper and my closet door.

The top of my dresser is the typical assortment of deodorant, jewelry, sunglasses, etc. But there’s no real organization and I definitely need a “system” for my bracelets and necklaces. There’s a whole 5-drawer cabinet with more crap jewelry in my closet, but I can’t remember the last time I opened that thing up, so it’s safe to say it’s time to purge, purge, purge.

At some point, I thought it was a good idea to put this chair here. Another “for now” move. One of the first pieces I purchased when I moved into my first apartment, I hold on dearly to this bergère. It cost me about $80 at a local thrift store, and reminds me of when I initially got into design and was in a heavy French phase. It could use some reupholstery, but I’ll probably never get rid of it. Whether it belongs here is a different story. On its left, a peacock mirror that used to hang on the wall of my bedroom in Florida. I’ve yet to find a home for it here.

The Bed & Nightstands

The bed upholstery happens to be almost the same color as the walls, so that’s gotta change. Charles and I love this bed. The wings feel like a hug and also come in handy when I need to flip flop in bed but my back hurts and I need some leverage. #thisis35 I’ll likely work it into the new design, unless we size up to a king.

Let’s chat about these nightstands. One of my first DIYs and man was I proud. These were from my “Kelly green everything” phase. I desperately wanted sharp green campaign-style nightstands years ago, but couldn’t find any in my budget so IKEA hack to the rescue. The hardware on these things cost about 4x what the chests cost, so…that was a mistake, but they brought me so much joy for so long. After upgrading to a 2-bedroom back in Florida with Charles, these lived in the second bedroom. They eventually found their way into our main bedroom here in LA after purging most of our furniture during the move. Another “for now” situation (sensing a theme?).

They provide great storage, but really just hold all my junk. They’re also a bit narrow and I can barely reach whatever is on top of them when in bed. I can’t begin to tell you the number of glasses I’ve nearly dropped just shy of the edge. Not ideal.

The TV…& the Corner of Doom

Let’s move to the other side of the room. Our TV sits on one of my old nightstands as, again, we sold our dresser before the move. It’s a bit too low and I’m usually found punching down the comforter to see the full screen. Next to it? The corner of doom.

Let’s take stock: 3 suitcases, two weekend bags, 4 unfinished dining chairs, some random bags that I think have fabric scraps in them, an empty storage container that I have no recollection of actually putting there, two shelves that used to be in my living room, and an 8×11 rug. That rug was under this bed for a while, but it kept getting all twisted and we had enough.

Need a closer look?

This is what I see when I enter my room every day. What a blessing.

BUT WINDOWS! So many windows. And a cable twisted up on the curtain rods (those were here when we moved in, as were the curtains). We’ve definitely gone blind to that cord…I didn’t even notice it until I was resizing these photos. Ay.

Now that you’ve seen my off-brand Raisin Bran, here’s what I need to figure out on my end: